Bad xvid video quality in windows 7!

[TempSiZ]

So installed Windows 7 and the up to date K-Lite FULL codec pack with media player classic home theater, when playing xvid files in full screen compared to previously I notice alot more pixelation and blotchyness than I had previously in Vista or XP.

Could it be a weird settings issue or is it a windows 7 thing?

[yoda313]

Codec packs are not recommended by veteran users on this website.

Try mediaplayerclassic or vlc. They have internal codecs.

[Ethlred]

Deblocking is probably turned off.

Get rid of K-Lite. Though it sometimes works for some. Unfortunately it often screws things up. In most cases installing ffdshow would have got you the better results and less problems than a codec pack.

Install KMP player or Media Player Classic or VLC.

Ethelred

[freebird73717]

In most cases installing ffdshow would have got you the better results and less problems than a codec pack.

yep. fully agree

[TempSiZ]

Thank you guys for the fast replys. Forgive me but I don't know much about this stuff so I'm asking again!

I tried playing an xvid video before installing K-Lite and it was exactly the same as after. So is the windows 7 built in codecs any good or is it just my pc?

Do you suggest for me to uninstall the K-Lite codec pack and install ffdshow and does ffdshow come with any codecs like the xvid codec or well it use the built in windows 7 xvid codec once I uninstall the codec pack?

[jagabo]

Be sure to get the latest WHQL certified drivers for your graphics card.

From MPCHC select View -> Options -> Playback -> Output. From the DirectShow Video box try the different renders. Especially VMR9 Renderless and EVR Custom Pres. You have to exit MPCHC and restart it for the change to take effect. Also try the different Resizers in the VMR7/9 settings section. It sounds like you're getting the Nearest Neighbor filter now.

[freebird73717]

damn. Sorry I didn't read your first post very well. Media Player Classic Home Cinema has it's own built in codecs. That's why you didn't see a difference in picture quality. Follow jagabo's advice for fine tuning mpchc.

also ffdshow is not a codec pack.

ffdshow is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing AVI, DivX, XviD, MKV, MP4, WMV, MPG, MPEG2(SVCD, DVD), AVC/H264, AC3, DTS, AAC with image postprocessing like video noise removing filters and audio postprocessing. Over 70 bugs have been fixed, codecs have been updated, and support for a few new formats has been added in the tryouts. Vista is now supported.

FFdshow is one of the first things I install on a new pc. Very useful for video processing.

[porfitron]

Windows 7 can decode MPEG-4 ASP files, but if you want to give another decoder a shot, you can install DivX 7 for free. It includes directshow filters that will allow you to use its decoder.

Also the DivX Plus Tech Preview: MKV on Windows 7, which is included in DivX 7, has been working out pretty well for Windows 7 users wanting to play MKVs or stream to an Xbox360. It's NOT a codec pack - it actually is a splitter that lets Windows decode the H.264 video bitstream with its own decoders. It's free from DivX here:
http://www.divx.com/en/windows-7

It's been out since the Windows 7 beta, so you'll find lots of feedback in the DivX Labs forums on how to configure it to fit your needs.

[alimustafakhan]

Hi,

I have been hving the same problem. Since Windows 7 everything is Pixelised to an extent that some content has actually become unbearable while previously it was average-good. I mean even classics are pixelated to an extent that Audrey Hepburn does not look the way she was. Please help me save Audrey....

I have tried ...

Installing
FFdshow
Dix 7
VLC Player
Media Player Classic
Windows MEdia Player 12
Nero 7

Loads of other stuff that came bundled with
AutoGK
Make MKV
Handbrake

I have tried everything above but nothing works.

thanks in advance... ali

[Ai Haibara]

As you're apparently having the problem with VLC, which uses its own codecs and not the codecs/filters installed on the system, it sounds like it may be more a problem with your video setup than with the codecs (unless your videos are or have become corrupt, somehow). Have you made sure that your video card drivers are up-to-date and are certified (or at least mentioned as working properly with) for Windows 7?

I don't use 7, so I probably wouldn't be of much more help.

[jagabo]

I have been hving the same problem. Since Windows 7 everything is Pixelised... I have tried ...

Installing
FFdshow
Dix 7
VLC Player
Media Player Classic
Windows MEdia Player 12
Nero 7

Loads of other stuff that came bundled with
AutoGK
Make MKV
Handbrake

Did you try a different output device? And make sure you have the latest WHQL certified drivers for your graphics card. In MPCHC:



In the DirectShow Video box try especially VMR7 renderless and VMR9 renderless and EVR Custom Pres. In the "VMR7/9 (renderless)..." box try the different Resizer and Surface options. Many of these options require that you exit and restart MPCHC for the change to take effect.

[alimustafakhan]

Hi,

I tried everything, right from uninstalling VLC to adjustments jagabo suggested. Nothing worked. So I thought I just might reinstall Windows 7 clean out the drive and then see. After reinstalling Windows 7 it turns out that the problem is not with Windows 7,but VLC player. Hence one must not try to install VLC player on Windows 7, as this was among the first things I did when I installed Windows 7 on my PC. It is also helpfull to install the Full Klite Codec Pack on Windows 7 as it helps WMP to show almost all kinds of videos.

Anybody with same problem try doing the same. It worked for me.

Best Regards... Ali

[Ai Haibara]

VLC doesn't make any alterations to the system's video setup, codecs and filters, with one exception - the installer does try to grab most of the video file and disc image file associations and set them to open with VLC, if you allow it to do that. That's about it.

Since you already had VLC installed when upgrading to Win7, you possibly could have needed to reset/delete your VLC settings. They do tend to become corrupt, sometimes. Or there could have been something among the settings that didn't agree with Win7's setup.

And installing a codec pack is still not a good idea.

[alimustafakhan]

Hi Ai,

I do not understand this, I had uninstalled the VLC player and deleted everything, even the installation download. However the poor quality continued, with all pictures coming pixelated. Hence it was something that VLC did which was not working as when I installed almost everything exactly the same except VLC it worked. This leaves VLC in very suspicious position.
Best Regards... Ali

[jagabo]

I run VLC (32 bit version) on Win7 Ultimate 64 bit without problems.

[Ai Haibara]

Hi Ai,

I do not understand this, I had uninstalled the VLC player and deleted everything, even the installation download. However the poor quality continued, with all pictures coming pixelated. Hence it was something that VLC did which was not working as when I installed almost everything exactly the same except VLC it worked. This leaves VLC in very suspicious position.
Best Regards... Ali

When you're playing in VLC, or any player?

If it is/was in VLC only, uninstalling VLC doesn't remove or delete VLC's settings, hidden in the 'vlc' folder in your Application Data folder, as I recall. You can try resetting the settings, either by using the option (button) in VLC's settings dialog, or by telling it to reset/delete the settings when you're installing VLC.

If it was in all your players... as I mentioned, VLC doesn't touch the video setup at all, for the most part.

If you reformatted and installed Win7 without upgrading from a previous version of Windows, this time, and the problem hasn't appeared, it could be that when you upgraded, previously, something from the previous setup interfered with the playback under Win7, was corrupted, or needed to be reconfigured.

[lacywest]

Try installing ... http://www.mpcstar.com/?lang=en_us ... it also installs FFdshow and then install the newest version of FFDshow because FFDshow has been updated just lately ... but MPCSTAR 4.2 ... has not been updated for awhile now.

[alimustafakhan]

Hi Ai,

I do not understand this, I had uninstalled the VLC player and deleted everything, even the installation download. However the poor quality continued, with all pictures coming pixelated. Hence it was something that VLC did which was not working as when I installed almost everything exactly the same except VLC it worked. This leaves VLC in very suspicious position.
Best Regards... Ali

When you're playing in VLC, or any player?

If it is/was in VLC only, uninstalling VLC doesn't remove or delete VLC's settings, hidden in the 'vlc' folder in your Application Data folder, as I recall. You can try resetting the settings, either by using the option (button) in VLC's settings dialog, or by telling it to reset/delete the settings when you're installing VLC.

If it was in all your players... as I mentioned, VLC doesn't touch the video setup at all, for the most part.

If you reformatted and installed Win7 without upgrading from a previous version of Windows, this time, and the problem hasn't appeared, it could be that when you upgraded, previously, something from the previous setup interfered with the playback under Win7, was corrupted, or needed to be reconfigured.

I think corruption might be the case then, because when I installed Windows 7 for the first time it was an upgrade but when I did it for the second time it was put in after I had formatted the previous drive, hence a new OS all through.

[djshorts]

You guys are a bunch of retards..

Symptoms:
Windows 7/8. MKV's are fine. If I play an avi (xvid is the codec - dvd rip). it looks crap in media player classic but looks good in vlc player.

None of the stuff on this forum worked.

Solution:
use ffshow as the codec/filter in mpc. In the settings tick resize, tick process whole image, select resize to screen resolution.

Enough said.

[yoda313]

You guys are a bunch of retards..

Digging up a 3 year old thread for no reason? Who's the jerk now?

Sorry I don't usually say things like that but grave robbing an old thread to start calling people names who tried in good faith to help a user? I say thats totally uncalled for.

[djshorts]

The issue just really pissed me off.. I wasted about a hour on it. I guess I just took my frustration out :P

I do apologize.

The reason why I posted it was that I didn't want someone else to go through what I did! This thread was the closest I found describing the issue.

[yoda313]

The reason why I posted it was that I didn't want someone else to go through what I did! This thread was the closest I found describing the issu

Ok if there actually was a reason for posting that is different. It just seemed like you came out of left field for no reason and started blasting the whole forum.

I do apologize.

Ok.

Thanks.

[hello_hello]

You guys are a bunch of retards..

Symptoms:
Windows 7/8. MKV's are fine. If I play an avi (xvid is the codec - dvd rip). it looks crap in media player classic but looks good in vlc player.

None of the stuff on this forum worked.

Solution:
use ffshow as the codec/filter in mpc. In the settings tick resize, tick process whole image, select resize to screen resolution.

Can you define "looks like crap"?
It sounds to me like the issue is the way the video is resized when playing standard definition AVIs. I'd guess the MKVs you're viewing tend to need less resizing and are of a higher quality than the AVIs to begin with? If the AVIs are low quality then resizing can make the artefacts look a lot worse, or maybe hide them a bit, depending on the resize method your player uses. It might also depend if the video card is doing the resizing and how it does it. If you're using ffdshow to resize then I'd guess the CPU is doing the work.

Are you referring to using MPC or MPC-HC? It's not hard to compare how differently MPC-HC and ffdshow resize a video. You are aware MPC-HC has a few different resize methods?

Anyway, it's easy enough to compare:
Open a SD video using MPC-HC (ffdshow decoding). Run MPC-HC maximised (not full screen). Set ffdshow to resize the video to HD (set the resize width to 1280 or 1920 etc). Now with MPC-HC running maximised, enable and disable ffdshow's resize filter. The size of the video on the screen shouldn't change as you do if MPC-HC is maximised, but the "sharpness" certainly could as you'll effectively be switching between MPC-HC and ffdshow doing the resizing.
For me the difference is very obvious as I use a softer resizer in MPC-HC so ffdshow's default resizer is sharper (ffdshow can also use different resizing methods), but for resizing poor quality AVIs I think it's too harsh. If I change MPC-HC's resizer to a sharper one and switch between MPC-HC and ffdshow's resizing again, there's nowhere as much difference between the two. Very little, in fact.

Something else to be aware of..... when using ffdshow to resize it can cause the video to display using the wrong colorimetry. Standard definition and HD use slightly different colorimetry, so if you take a SD video and resize it to a HD resolution with ffdshow it might be displayed using HD colorimetry instead of SD which means the colors will be a little off. Ironically, if you're watching downloaded AVIs which are often HD sources encoded as SD AVIs without converting the colours correctly, by using ffdshow to resize the video to a HD resolution for viewing you could be accidentally fixing the colors.
Using the same method as above you can compare the colors with and without ffdshow resizing. If they change when ffdshow is resizing (probably most noticeable for red) you might want to set ffdshow to only output RGB so it's choosing the colorimetry which should stop that from happening.